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Job 36:30Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea.Job 36:31For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance.Job 36:32He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.Job 36:33Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.

Tuesday while we were grooming the sand bunkers we found an irrigation line on 11 foxfire green side trap with the John Deere sand pro. I think this trap will be eliminated at some point due to the logistical routing of the orgininal upgraded greens loop or original greens loop. I do not know because there are not any asbuilts. We had to repair it quickly to water in the fungistat for the basidimycetes or fairy ring. Flutalonil is the most appropriate control that has been around for decades. I’m not much on some newer products for certain pathogens and there are over 16,000 basidimycetes pathogens. I believe we reviewed this in my last post ergo, I will not explain its functionality again. But this is what fairy ring looks like full blown in high cut turf. That bunker will be ground under repair until I get the cylinder fixed on the skid steer loader. Firthermore, the term fungicides are misnomered etamologically due to the fact the Latin term “cide” which translates to kill does not ever in any situation pertain to plant protectant applications. The EPA obviously missed this verbiage due to the lack of comprehension when they were categorizing chemistry. There is no scientific evidence qualitatively or quantitatively by any university to suggest otherwise. I do not utilize any state or federal verbiage when it refers to applications because of that exact term. “Cide” has an immediate subliminal or conscious negative conotation. However, fungicides never really kill a fungus, they only supress it. Enough on education. We utilize Best Management Practices in our agronomy program and if anyone has any questions about what the dilution being applied is you may inquire with me. Lightning on Wednesday after the greens sprayer pulley broke on the rig so we had to finish spraying greens with the tractor and pull behind 300 gallon SDI.

Thanks for the photo Vince. He is the head golf pro now. And Jeff Funk newly elected greens committee member who plays every morning and helps Mike check fairways after it rains for cart path only rulings sent in this photo below this morning. There does not appear to be any electrical or control issues regarding irrigation damage on 5 Players but we still have one head intermittently failing on 11 green Players. It worked fine after Joel left and quit working sometime during this week which means there is another break in the wire. The first break was from a secondary drainage added many years ago and was never repaired properly after the drain on 11 cart path was installed. It basically runs from the path 50 feet to the last of the path near the fescue and stops. Another 50 feet and they would have had complete fall in to the pond. I can not rationale what I find. I can only inspect what I expect.

I have never in my career seen lightning strike on the same hole twice yet alone with in 40 days apart with in 180 days! I think I’m going circle an eagle on it and move on when I play! Here is the green again from Saturday May 27, 2016

Next, the greens sprayer pulley on new pump shaft bored out! Engine and frame have over 5,500 hours. Secure below on Players catching up on fungistat suppression for scelerarinia homeocarpa or “dollar spot” we got 22 days of suppression before #15 Players showed signs two days ago of an out break! Brad has been doing an excellent job diagnosing irrigation on Friday nights late and spraying greens and fairways. We should finish Players tomorrow and when we can send funds to entities we will have more product for Foxfire fairways. We patched our last application together on Foxfire with product we had and would did not specificaly order it to utilize on Bluegrass but we would have no grass had we not, ergo we did 3 separate trial studies. However, it is best to utilize a generic suppressant on that golf course.

Next, we have modified one of our new used carts to carry weed eaters and I purchased these racks a few years ago to fabricate our own but did not get the appropriate utility cart to utilize until the CEO of John Deere, whom I know, and graduated from Purdue University, got a new equipment package and returned these to Reynolds Farm and Turf equipment, in which Justin Ross made me aware of and we picked them up on a great deal even though the seats were worn already from inadequate training on the Purdue staff, but what can we expect from Purdue, but a great deal! So Jim added the weed eater racks to increase the life span of the weed eater.

We are down to one fairway unit again and Jim brought his personal rapid face grinder to sharpen the bed knives on the only tee mower we have. But Jose had some issues this week with sensors and completeting the 60 acres of fairways with one mower. However, even with that said the stripes are right! Players #3 and below that is the bluegrass ryegrass course #15. Foxfire rarely photoed.

Rain on 12 Foxfire fairway above! Jose overheated on Tuesday mowing Players! Photo from above is Nancy mowing rough. She asked me to pray at Bible study and we did and the lightning only hit 1000 ft away from where she was sheltered -by the way crow flies. Another golf course, another area code, another town but only about 1000 ft away. My biggest concern is for my team members and their safety. When you have seen people die in this industry your concern for others is greatly enhanced! ​With one tee mower, one fairway mower one sprayer and no operating sand pro for 36 golfing holes over 285 acres of property to maintain we finished out the week like this with 22 team members and 40% less labor hours on average nationally. Yes, much more work needs to be accomplished but the ergonomic output given the work load and the force to create the output was much greater than I would have speculated based on statistical data. Great job everyone!

Jose is on his third different fairway mower this week. It is time to grind the reels again on the fairway unit and this is the mower we used last year with only 5 of the 7 reels operating. Brad adjusted these today and we found it cut the best after switching out a unit on the other Toro 5200. There are many mitigating factors to the correct after cut appearance for example when Mr. Graves or someone notices a mower scalping it may not be because the blades are not “sharp.” The blades are sharp or the grass would not scalp it would be white if torn- it scalps because the mower is not on a correct plane of altitude and attitude. This is due to the fact that there are many intricate moving parts that they have to find in a museum for us 84% of the time we need a new part because the parts are not in regular production. It would be like trying to find a starter for a model T Ford. They are out there I am sure but finding it is more expensive. For example including but not limited too: bushings, bearings, seals, hydraulic pumps, reel motors, lift arm assemblies, shems, rocker arms, cylinders, tapets, venturis, wires, cables, circuit boards, wheel motors, solenoids, reel motors, rollers, roller brackets, grease zerts, bed bars, bed knives, nuts, and screws specially made for each year mode and brand, and on and on etc. and if anyone of these parts are worn out in which they all are – then we can deduce the fact that when any given weak link fails this will create an uneven after cut appearance. Specifically, with regards to the rough mowing, and fairway mowing. If you notice an area scalped, it is due to wearing parts and mechanisms that can be corrected by replacing them one by one at 20 times the price of a new piece of equipment or we can continue to utilize what we have and the ability to create a pristine after cut appearance would become a greater risk with less rewards. We will see you all on the course. Happy Saturday! Remember Judge in your prayers. I hope to see him back out mowing greens again!